Local staff information

The Department of Digital Design and Information Studies is one of the strongest academic IT environments in Europe and attracts visiting scholars and PhD students from all over the world. We focus on information technology as a feature of people’s everyday lives and futures. As a result, we have a strong connection between theory and practice and play a role in a great number of national and international collaborations.

Research

The department is structured around three research units: Science and Technology Studies, Interactive Design, and Digital Aesthetics and Culture. These are cross-disciplinary fields involving research in organisations, communication, IT, design, society and technology; with research topics covering areas such as health IT, interaction processes, systems development, interface culture, surveillance, IT in urban spaces, and IT and business.

Degree programmes

Our degree programmes in digital design and information studies are deeply anchored in research in the department, and enthusiastic students have the opportunity of getting involved in research projects and student jobs. Our degree programmes are based at Katrinebjerg and form part of a wider, dynamic IT community with neighbours such as Google and B&O.

You can learn more about the content of our degree programmes in the study guide.

Employer panel

The participants in the employer panel are involved in developing up-to-date study programs that match the competences companies and institutions demand of their employees. Here is an overview of the panel for the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies.

LABS

Upcoming events

News

This autumn, the Tropical Dome of Aarhus Botanical Garden’s Greenhouses will light up in an interactive spectacle. The installation is developed and produced by CAVI, TEKNE, CIBIS, the School of Communication and Culture, AU, in collaboration with the Greenhouses, Science and Technology, AU, and the design agency Kollision.

Students of digital design from Aarhus University presented a panel of developers from Danske Bank with their ideas about the digital payment systems of the future and how the Danes perceive money. Increasing digitalisation means that our banks need new skills to rethink the payment systems of the future.

EU issues major grant to associate professor Martin Brynskov and the beacon project SynchroniCity. This gives Aarhus University a leading role in developing the Internet of Things in cities, and a unique opportunity to work with a global consortium to influence the current process of digitalisation.

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The decennial Aarhus conference – August 2015

The decennial Aarhus conference – August 2015

1975-1985-1995-2005 — the decennial Aarhus conferences have traditionally been instrumental for setting new agendas for critically engaged thinking about information technology. The fifth decennial Aarhus conference, Critical Alternatives, aims to set new agendas for theory and practice in computing for quality of human life.

The conference series is fundamentally interdisciplinary and emphasizes thinking that is firmly anchored in action, intervention, and scholarly critical practice. With the title Critical Computing – between sense and sensibility, the 2005 edition of the conference marked that computing was rapidly seeping into everyday life. In 2015, we see critical alternatives in alignment with utopian principles—that is, the hope that things might not only be different but also radically better. At the same time, radically better alternatives don’t emerge out of nowhere: they emerged from contested analyses of the mundane present and demand both commitment and labor to work towards them. Critical alternatives matter and make people reflect.

Follow our research in APRJA – “A Peer-Reviewed Journal About”

Follow our research in APRJA – “A Peer-Reviewed Journal About”

APRJA is an open-access research journal that addresses the ever-shifting thematic frameworks of digital culture. APRJA stands for “A Peer-Reviewed Journal About” and invites the addition of a research topic to address what is considered to be key aspects of contemporary digital art and culture.

Students designing for the future

Students designing for the future

At the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies we help our students to meet the business community and find out what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.

For instance, once a year our students are challenged to compose a design that solves a social problem. During this process they gain contact with interest groups, have prototypes developed at design companies, and test the resulting products on a test panel. Finally, they present their designs at a trade fair which is evaluated by experts in entrepreneurship.

New telemedicine research network

New telemedicine research network

Researchers at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies work on the interaction between people and IT, which is why they have been included in Aarhus University’s new focus area: an interdisciplinary telemedicine research network. The main idea of the network is that it should be open and inclusive to ensure that everyone with an interest in telemedicinal solutions can take part – including not only people at Aarhus University, but also companies and other external stakeholders.

Interactive Terracotta Warrior

Interactive Terracotta Warrior

The researchers at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies are often involved in external collaboration. For instance, they added an interactive dimension to Moesgaard Museum’s exhibition about the terracotta warriors.

To illustrate the fact that the terracotta warriors of emperor Qin Shi Huangdi’s tomb were all painted, CAVI in collaboration with Moesgaard Museum made an interactive part of the temporary exhibition, “The First Emperor – China’s Terracotta Army”, which ran April 1 - September 30, 2015.